Israel Are Called On To Return To YHWH With The Assurance That When They Do So YHWH Will Restore Them And Love Them Freely, And They Then Learn Of All The Good Things That He Has In Store For Them As A Result(Hosea 14:1-9).
YHWH's terms for His people's return to Him are now clearly laid out. They include a call from them to return to Him and to be forgiven, and an assurance that they will no more look to Assyria, or to their military arms, or to their idols. And once they do this YHWH assures them that He will heal their backslidings and love them freely, because His anger will be turned away from them.
Once this is so He will water them with His dew, so that they will blossom and flourish, and the result will be that those who live under the new Israel's protecting shadow will also revive and blossom and flourish. They will repudiate idols, and walk in the right ways of the Lord. Comparison can be made with Hosea 6:1-3 where the same principles are in mind.
Hosea has, however, previously made clear that this would in practise not happen until Israel had suffered the chastening of exile., and these words may well have been spoken in the last days of Israel before Samaria was finally destroyed offering hope for the future, but only once they had undergone their chastening.
Analysis of Hosea 14:1-9.
a O Israel, return to YHWH your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity (Hosea 14:1).
b Take with you words, and return to YHWH. Say to him, “Take away all iniquity, and accept what is good, so will we render as bullocks the offering of our lips (Hosea 14:2).
c Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, “Our gods”, for in you the fatherless find mercy (Hosea 14:3).
d I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away from him (Hosea 14:3).
e I will be as the dew to Israel, he will blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches will spread, and his beauty will be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon (Hosea 14:4-6).
d Those who dwell under his shadow will return, they will revive as the grain, and blossom as the vine, their scent will be as the wine of Lebanon (Hosea 14:7).
c Ephraim will say, “What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him. I am like a green fir-tree, from me is your fruit found.” (Hosea 14:8).
b Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Prudent, that he may know them? (Hosea 14:9 a)
a For the ways of YHWH are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will fall in them (Hosea 14:9 b).
Note that in ‘a' Israel have fallen by their iniquity, and in the parallel transgressors will fall in the ways of YHWH. In ‘b' they are to come to YHWH with words indicating that they will no longer look elsewhere than YHWH, and in the parallel they are asked who is wise to understand, and prudent to know such things. In ‘c' they will no more call the work of their hands gods, and in the parallel they will ask what they have more to do with idols. In ‘d' YHWH will heal their backsliding and love them freely, and in the parallel they will return to YHWH and will revive and blossom Centrally in ‘e' they will flourish under the effects of YHWH's dew.